A spur of the moment decision to pop down to North Wales and see Auntie Betty and the family turned into a marvellous weekend of stormy seaside strolls, some good dining (with a few beers) and a Sunday Afternoon walk to the City of the Giants. A few years back when myself, my OH and son were en-route to a wedding at Nant Gwrtheyrn, I’d seen the signpost for the footpath and promised a walk up to Tre’r Ceiri next time we were down. Cousin Gavin had described the place to me and I’d checked it out on Google and Bing Maps. I had since seen the photos on TMA from postman, GLADMAN and thesweetcheat. On Saturday Night last, at dinner in Pwllheli, Gavin suggested a stroll to the City of the Giants on Sunday afternoon. We had spent Saturday watching kite-surfers riding a frothing cauldron and getting airborne at Hell’s Mouth, so I was a little uncertain as to what the weather would bring on Sunday, but a plan was made.
Sunday dawned bright and fair. Gavin and June brought the Gavmobile round to pick us up and we headed off. From Pwllheli you just head out on the A499 towards Caernafon and turn off to the left down a wee narrow street at Llanaelhaearn and head round the foot of the hills between Tre’r Ceiri and Mynydd Carnguwch. There is a great wee pull in spot here.https://goo.gl/maps/WtLaa5RKoto
The footpath begins right across the road. A little steep at the start, then up over a stile at the top of the field, a little to the left around the big rocky crag of Caergribin and then it is a fairly level walk across the moorland to the foot of the crag which is the City of the Giant’s perch. I was genuinely floored with amazement as the bright sunlight picked out the faces of the massive stone walls. The flat tops of the mighty defences looked wide enough to drive a car around. My son ran ahead and I watched him dart up the steep entrance while I sweated it out on the heather flanks below. We were less than 30 minutes from the Gavmobile and hadn’t been forcing any kind of hard pace. This is a fairly easy walk and boy does it pay every easy stride back in spadefuls!
I’ll let everyone’s photos of this historical wonder do most of the talking here. There is an awful lot of stone meeting the eye. It is hard to take in the scale of the construction at Tre’r Ceiri. All around are the stoney, scree-strewn peaks of Yr Eifl, Moel-Pen-Llechog and the lower (yet strikingly beautiful) peaks which unfold down the length of the Llyn Peninsula towards Nefyn. But standing straight across from the City of the Giants is the mighty upright cairn of Mynydd Carnguwch, time and again I found my eye was dragged back to look at its profile. The Welsh sun shone all afternoon. We could have stayed all day.
The preservation is exceptional, the walls are a wonder, the simple areas of restoration are easy to spot (with their little drill holes). This is the most amazingly preserved, mightiest, most grandest, finest, panoramically stupefying-est, weirdly intoxicating hillfort I have ever been in. If you are in North Wales and can walk for half an hour or so on fairly easy terrain, get yourself up to Tre’r Ceiri, the City of the Giants. It’s a monster!

Parked the car at Kilmory Church and walked in via Cloined Farm (and Pottery). The route starts as the well surfaced farm road and deteriorates a little afterwards. It was twenty three years sinced I'd walked the route and yet the Beech Hedge on either side of the first 400 yards after the Pottery still seemed strangely familiar. On a particularly muddy stretch of pathway I was suddenly aware I was not wearing my walking boots... but had instead set off in the pair of comfy suede shoes I'd been driving in. I could see the well-metalled forestry road a little ahead, it was too late to walk back and change footwear now. The route up ahead was gonna be excellent so I carefully picked my way through the mud and puddles and made good headway after the Forestry Commission road started. Easy going for three or four kilometres, through Aucheleffan Farm and on up to the stones.
The continued clear-felling of forestry on the South of Arran has opened up the site beautifully, revealing a stunning view down across the South of Arran and across to Ailsa Craig. The view back up the hill doesn't have any such wow factor.
The clear felling has also revealed a few more stones a hundred yards due South of the Aucheleffan four poster. One in particular is an earthfast upright monolith about 1 and a half metres high and squared, tapering towards the top (in a typical Arran fashion).
In 1995 another four poster was reported about 200 metres South East of Aucheleffan Stones and is named on Canmore as "Aucheleffan". Due to high bracken and the mess of clear-felled Sitka Spruce debris this other four poster was not to be seen on this visit.

NS 4775 5323. "The Covenanter's Stone": fallen stone circle (A W Millar). Seven recumbent stone slabs, 4ft 11ins to 5ft 7ins in length by 2ft to 3ft in maximum breadth, are arranged in a circle about 25ft in diameter, (if the arrangement were symmetrical, an eighth slab is missing). The site is immediately S of a massive Medieval land dyke, broken by the 18th century coach road and a later track which pass round the circle on opposite sites.
F Newall 1963

NS 4773 5333. The dimensions of these seven recumbent slabs are as given above, the largest being 1.8m long, 0.9m wide and 0.4m thick. Their present position - they lie in two parallel rows of three and four stones respectively - make it difficult to visualise them forming a circle; however, depending on the way each stone fell (if, indeed, they ever stood), they might suggest a stone circle of possible 8.0m diameter. The name "Covenanter's Stone" is known locally but no
reliable information was obtained. The "Medieval land dyke" noted by Newall is a field bank of no great age. The 18th century coach road appears to be no more than a hill-track.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 26 November 1964

Listed by Burl as of "uncertain status, including complex and misidentified sites".
H A W Burl 1976

Seven large recumbent slabs lie in a rough 'avenue' running approximately E-W. The long sides of the stones are at right angles to this line. The stones vary in size from about 1m by 1m up to 2.2m by 1m with an average of 1.4m in length. An eighth stone reputedly from the site was until recently used as a bridge over a burn about 1/2 mile away. The stones are unlikely to be lying in their exact original positions - at least one is known to have been slightly moved in the 1950s. Prior to the legendary usage by the Covenanters, the seven (or eight) stones may well have formed a standing circle. About 7m to the N lie two stony mounds in line, with their long axis SW-NE. Both are about 7.5m in length. A relationship with the seven stones adjacent should not be ruled out.
Sponsor: Renfrewshire Local History Forum, Archaeology Group
B Henry et al. 1994.

There is no evidence that this group of stones ever formed a stone circle. They form no coherent pattern or arrangement and they lie in a damp, peaty hollow.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 29 February 2008.